Manpower cutting 150 jobs

Staffing firm putting focus on automation

Manpower Group acknowledged Wednesday that it is eliminating about 150 jobs at its headquarters in downtown Milwaukee.

Employees were told of the cuts late last week, with the staffing company saying the reductions come as Manpower Group continues “to automate and digitize our business,” according to a statement released Wednesday by spokeswoman Chelsey Orlikowski.

“Like many organizations we are investing in technology to deliver the competitive solutions our customers expect,” the statement said. “Automation and new technologies reduce the need for manual business processes, which impacts certain jobs and skill sets.”

“I hope you can understand this is a sensitive time for all those involved,” Orlikowski added in an email. She did not respond Wednesday to further questions, and it was not known what types of jobs are being eliminated.

Manpower Group, however, has taken steps toward outsourcing information-technology functions.

Documents filed with the U.S. Labor Department show that the staffing company last year applied for visas for 212 foreign information-technology workers. Tech outsourcing firms have sought another 23 visas for foreign workers who would be placed at Manpower Group’s headquarters.

The great majority of the visas were for placement at Manpower Group until August 2019 and sought computer systems analysts who would be paid well below the average for such work in metropolitan Milwaukee.

The analysts at Manpowe rGroup would receive $30 an hour, according to the applications.

The median computer systems analyst wage in metropolitan Milwaukee in May 2015 was $37.67 an hour — 25% more than the pay the foreign workers would receive under the Manpower Group applications. Half of all workers are above the median, and half are below.

The mean wage — what many people think of as the average — for computer systems analysts here was $43.93 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More than 90% of Manpower Group’s applications for foreign workers call for the workers to be paid at the lowest of four levels specified in Labor Department guidance.

Such people do not possess highly specialized skills, the guidance indicates.